"K-Billy's Super Sounds of the '70s weekend just keeps on truckin' ..." The short but legendary recording career of Stealers Wheel is defined by the pinnacle reached with its first two albums. Listening to this extraordinary debut effort it's easy to hear why many thought Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan's Stealer's Wheel would become the UK's answer to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The duo's distinctive style is in full evidence, marrying ultra-catchy hooks and melodies to thoughtful lyrics and gorgeous vocal harmonies.

Songs from Stealers Wheel's stellar first pair of LPs have gotten steady airplay since they were released, and of course Gerry Rafferty's breakout success with his solo album City to City shined a bright light on his earlier efforts. Stealers Wheel became an indelible element of pop culture for new generations when maverick director Quentin Tarantino built a major set piece of his own debut Reservoir Dogs around the infectious hooks of "Stuck in the Middle."

By the time Ferguslie Park was recorded, the band was distilled down to the songwriting duo of Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan working with a backing band of session players. It would hardly matter as Rafferty and Egan were clearly the creative essence of Stealers Wheel. Knowing the band's history of battling themselves, their producers and their record label it's easy to see where they were coming from with songs like "Good Businessman," "Nothing's Gonna Change My Mind," "Who Cares" and "(Everyone's Agreed That) Everything Will Turn Out Fine."

Mastering Notes

Stealers Wheel’s self-titled debut and Ferguslie Park are sourced from the best tapes currently available, beautifully preserved ½” 30ips “safety copies” of the original 15 ips stereo masters. When mastering these LPs we compared what we were getting off the tape to the exceptional A&M UK “Porky/Pecko” cut for Stealers and the UK “RL” cut (Robert Ludwig!) of Ferguslie Park on LP. For Stealers, we preserved the full (and we do mean full!) bass expression that is on the tapes, and that no additional push was needed in the midrange and treble to emphasize detail. The result is a remarkably lively recording with driving bass, wonderfully expressive guitars and living, and living, breathing vocal harmonies from Rafferty and Egan like you’ve never heard them before!
While great sounding overall, the original Ferguslie LP’s use of dynamic limiting/compression was easily evident, with the soft parts being louder and more up front, and the louder/busier passages dropping in level and noticeably smearing over the tremendous delicacy and nuance in the vocals and instruments. For the IR cut we eliminated this dynamic limiting and heard an immediate expansion and openness in the soundstage, and musical detail previously buried came to sparkling new life!

The (Re)Discover Series

You know those songs that come up on the radio when you’re driving and you crank up the volume to 11 and sing your lungs out? That’s the spirit of what Intervention’s (Re)Discover Series is all about! Taking these FM classics and presenting them in "like you’ve never heard it before" sound quality so you can get that same blast of energy and excitement on your hi-fi at home. The hallmark of this series will be 100% analog mastering from real analog tapes. Combining superior master sources with the truly full-range mastering chain at Cohearent Audio and RTI’s dead quiet vinyl pressing means that you’ll hear these FM staples with power, majesty and musical detail like it’s the first time. (Re)Discover these sonic treasures with us!

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